FNG has learned that UK neobroker startup Lightyear has made a change in its management C-Suite, as the company has received a UK FCA license and gears up to compete in the increasingly crowded UK online trading and investment products market.
Lightyear has named its COO, Wander Rutgers (pictured above), as CEO of the company, replacing co-founder Martin Sokk. Sokk is a former senior executive at money transfer company Wise, who founded Lightyear in 2020 alongside former Wise colleague Mihkel Aamer, who serves as CTO of Lightyear. Wander Rutgers has been COO of Lightyear since 2022, and was also with Sokk and Aamer at Wise, before joining Robinhood UK as President (2018-2020) during Robinhood’s early first attempt to expand to the UK.
Lightyear also operates in the EU via Estonia based Lightyear Europe AS, licensed by the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (Finantsinspektsioon), and until now had been active in the UK as an appointed representative of FCA regulated RiskSave Technologies Ltd. The new license issued to Lightyear U.K. Ltd will allow the company to directly offer Cash and Stocks and Shares ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts), a market it plans to expand to in early 2025.
The move comes as larger neobank / neobroker competitors are also increasing their presence in the UK online trading market, including Revolut and US based Robinhood. Incumbent broker Hargreaves Lansdown is in process of being acquired.
